Cole was outstanding in the 5-0 win over Blackburn Rovers and told chelseafc.com: "The manager has helped me at lot. He has had some knee injuries in his career and he has been able to talk to me and been able to understand it which has been helpful and he gave me the captain's armband against QPR which was a great gesture.

"Any footballer will tell you being injured is hard. I have had a lot of injuries over the past few seasons and it is great to have good friends and family to get me through it, but the main thing is to have a steely determination to get back and I feel that I have got that. I was always focused on days like Saturday."